R-a - Volume 3 - Chapter 41

R-a - Chapter 199 (In editing -v3)

On a lonely rooftop in the middle of nowhere, a quiet, shirtless human could be seen sitting down, steam rising off his shoulders as the rain that fell onto him instantly vaporized. The air around this human took on a foggy, clouded look as the rain silently collided with the steam.

Micheal’s veins bulged, blood pulsating through them as he sat still, his body screaming to break free and collapse. His pupils were dilated as he focused, relying on his iron-clad self-control to hold him steady. His back and shoulder, broad and muscular even after he modified his body to make his figure slimmer, stood rigid, tensed and tight.

A torrent of energy was currently rushing through him, enveloping every corner of his body in a mad rush that was impossible to stop. It was painful, but at the same time, incredibly intoxicating.

His cells felt as if they were truly alive, the energy tantalizing his senses in a way that was difficult to describe. It was glorious and amazing, raw ecstasy that ran unfettered.

It vaguely reminded him of Bracken Enhancement Fluid.

It gave a boost in power that sent shivers of delight through his body, one that was almost addictive in nature. Just like Bracken Enhancement Fluid, it was like a drug, giving incredible sensations with potentially deadly side-effects.

For many that experimented with Necrotic Burners, once you started, there was no going back. This feeling was extremely difficult to replicate, largely because the rush of power stayed with you. Unlike Bracken Enhancement Fluid, which had side effects that practically crippled its users for a period of time, Necrotic Burners often gave no negative results at all.

You gained a boost in power and, if the Artifact worked properly, that was it. No negatives.

Abruptly, Micheal’s pupils began to return to normal. His veins began to lose their swelling, his entire body calming down.

He exhaled slowly, his shoulders heaving a sigh of relief.

On his chest, the remnants of a Necrotic Burner cracked and fell apart, dissipating to ash.

He blinked several times, his breathing unhurried and calm as he assessed his body.

After a few moments, he exhaled sharply.

It was a success. He had just used up the third Necrotic Burner.

The first Necrotic Burner worked perfectly. His absorption had taken only a few seconds, just like the records he had read described the Artifacts working. His body felt swollen with power, a sizable portion of Ki merging with his own as his Cultivation advanced.

He received no side effects and was left whole and heart. He immediately used the second cross after he used up the first, not leaving any time for hesitation.

The second Necrotic Burner worked… almost perfectly.

After he stabbed his heart with the cross, like before, the energy had rushed into him and was absorbed, merging with his Ki.

However, when it came to fully healing him, Micheal noticed that it didn’t quite finish. His heart was hale, for the most part, but the veins and areas around it had notably scarred up. The Artifact was not perfectly made and left him with injuries that his body was unable to fully heal.

Everything worked fine, but he could tell he had accrued notable damage that, while not too dangerous, would hamper a normal human’s future growth.

Micheal had ignored that as he moved on to the third Necrotic Burner, the one he had used up right now.

And, through a bit of luck, this one worked like the first one had:

Perfectly.

The energy was absorbed without a hitch, Micheal’s experience at guiding and manipulating energy coming in handy as he allowed it to merge without any issues. The leftover energy healed his heart and related veins, wiping away the damage the second Necrotic Burner had left as if it hadn’t ever been.

And now, as Micheal sat on the rooftop, only a minute or two after he got started, he couldn’t help but to smile.

When he began using the Necrotic Burners, Micheal had decided that he was going to experiment with something you were only supposed to be able to do at the Sky Tier of Ki Cultivation:

Directed Cultivation.

As he felt the changes in his body, he could intuitively tell that this experiment had been a roaring success.

‘Status.’ He thought to himself, calling up the small blue screen.

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— - Status — -

Name: Micheal Care

Points: 11,213

Race: Human

Age: 18

Physique: Energized Physique - 2 Star

Soul Quality: 3 Star

Strength - 173 -> 212

Endurance - 129 -> 151

Recovery - 127 -> 128

Soul - 38

Abilities - (6/7)

Life Orb Master

Ki Cultivator (Earth Tier - Late)

Grandmaster Sword Mastery (1/5)

Impact Release

Ceaseless Mind

Temporal Bubble

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‘It really worked!’ The attempt had carried a small amount of risk, especially since he was absorbing Ki from other people, even if that Ki was supposedly purified and cleansed by the Necrotic Burner. If something had gone wrong, he might have been forced to waste a Life Orb.

However, given the immediate positives and his own confidence, Micheal had opted to try it.

And here he was now…

He had successfully managed to direct how the increase in Ki affected his body, customizing the increase in stats on a permanent level. Aka, Directed Cultivation.

Ki Cultivation was an interesting thing. By absorbing the energy of existence, by feeding off of reality, you could enhance your body and Soul in fantastic ways.

Typically, this energy would be absorbed in a general fashion. It would affect your entire body, boosting you in a nominally balanced manner.

However… as your body grew stronger, able to handle more Ki, to handle denser energy, certain possibilities began to open up. As long as he had a strong enough Soul, with a body that could handle it, it was possible for Micheal to manipulate how his stats would grow, how his physical body would evolve. Micheal had always been able to subtly affect this, causing there to be a larger focus on Strength in his growth, but never in an overwhelming way... until now.

His Soul being strong enough wasn’t even a question. With a Soul stat of 38, his Soul was on par with many Sky Tier experts.

His body’s stats, though… well, they were decent, but not yet Sky Tier, especially for the vast majority of humans with any type of boosting Abilities.

However, his 2 Star Energized Physique was strong, more so than a regular human’s. It was this Physique that gave him the confidence to at least try, a body that should be capable of many things.

And, because of his efforts, he had been rewarded.

’39 points in Strength, 22 points in Endurance, and 1 point in Recovery.’ The hugely unbalanced increase was a direct result of his Directed Cultivation.

He heavily prioritized Strength, while giving secondary emphasis to Endurance. As for Recovery, he abandoned it almost entirely.

There were some people that thought having balanced stats all around was the best method of growth. By keeping your Strength in tune with your Endurance, with a backdrop of Recovery that could keep up, a warrior could maintain his Strength at a strong level for long periods of time.

Micheal completely disagreed with that mentality, here in his second life.

He needed power.

Raw, unrestrained power.

Sure, having a strong Recovery stat was important. It let you heal from injuries at a faster pace, recover your energy during battle at an increased rate, things of that nature.

What else did that, one might ask?

Artifacts. Pills. Certain Magic Herbs. Potions. A plethora of tools and objects that could be used to handle those issues.

Even if he didn’t have the ability to come back to life after dying, Micheal’s thoughts would remain the same, though perhaps not to such an extreme degree.

Recovery was an important stat for the general populace, to ensure they survived the longest.

But for someone who’s goal was absolute, unadulterated power, Recovery was a stat he could mostly ignore, letting it grow on its own, through each Tier upgrade and from his body naturally becoming more healthy.

Endurance, on the other hand, was not a stat he could ignore. He could be insanely strong, but if he broke his hand every time he launched a punch, all of that power would go to waste. Thus, his Endurance needed to be strong enough that it could bear the strain he would place on his body, just enough to work in combat.

Strength, the final stat he could easily affect, was the holy grail of these three stats in Micheal’s eyes.

Battles between experts in close combat typically lasted from seconds to a few minutes at most. Duels that lasted for hours were a thing found in movies and fantasy, not reality.

A single misstep, an accidental mistake, the fate of a warrior’s life could be decided in a tiny fraction of a moment.

To ensure he had the greatest chance of winning that moment, Micheal poured the lion’s share of his efforts into Strength.

Enhanced senses, faster movement, stronger power, the Strength stat was the single most important stat for him among those he could easily influence.

If he ended every fight in a matter of seconds, he wouldn’t need a Recovery stat that could keep him fighting for hours. If he killed all of his enemies before they could injure him, he wouldn’t need to be able to heal his injuries in seconds or require a sky-high Endurance stat.

The fact that he had his Life Orbs did provide a great deal of reassurance and make this route more feasible. But, well, that was part of why he chose this Ability in the first place.

‘Soul still at 38, eh?’ He shrugged when he noticed that. As always, that particular stat was a royal pain to raise.

He also noted that his Ki Cultivation was still in the Late Stage of the Earth Tier. However, he could feel the noticeable changes that were beginning to take place, indicating that he was close to the Peak Stage, the last wall between him and the Heart Trial for Sky Tier.

Micheal tapped on his Spatial Ring, simultaneously moving his arms and legs to begin getting used to his newfound strength.

He scanned the contents of his ring for a second, zeroing in on the remaining Necrotic Burners. After a few seconds, the smile on his face widened slightly.

‘I have 14 more left.’ His perfect recall meant he already knew this fact. Still, he liked mentally reassuring himself and counting them out.

He had literally looted Yvvtal’s entire treasure when it came to Necrotic Burners. With this many left in store, reaching the highest Peak Stage of Earth Tier Ki Cultivation was only a matter of enemies killed.

And then, the Sky Tier would be only a Heart Trial away.

Micheal took a few more moments to get acclimated with his body.

After that, he got to his feet and stood up, ignoring the rain that was dripping off his green cloak. He put on a dry shirt from his Spatial Ring, gearing himself back up to fight.

He had gotten his first set of kills and power boosts. It was time to get another-

Just as he was in the middle of thinking, a blur in the corner of Micheal’s eye interrupted his concentration.

His head snapped to the left, staring at an armored female warrior that had just landed on his rooftop. She was a tall fighter, armed with a small, silenced pistol in one hand and a battle-axe in another. Despite jumping up a sizable height, she didn’t make even a sound when she landed here.

Micheal’s gaze fell upon her and then flickered up for a split second.

‘Right.’ He thought, frowning slightly.

The disturbance he’d made had been very minimal, but he was facing true experts, not random brigands.

Micheal felt, rather than saw, two more armored warriors land on the rooftop, one behind him and another off to his right. The one behind him was a male wielding two large swords, while the one on his right was another female, this time wielding several throwing stars.

A three-man squad, armed to the teeth and ready to fight.

The warriors didn’t speak, nor did Micheal. Instead, they seemed to be sizing him up.

A cool breeze swept across the rooftop, interrupting the scattered rain.

Micheal’s frown vanished as he took hold of the situation, replaced with a small smile.

It seemed that his prey had decided to come to him instead.

“Well then.” Micheal spoke aloud as he held his hands out to the side, ten long, metal threads flowing free from his gloves,

“Shall we begin?”

Without waiting for a reply, Micheal immediately began his attack.

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